The Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series take center stage this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway while the Sprint Cup Series takes its final off weekend of the year.

But most of those drivers still will have one eye trained on the Cup series — the ultimate goal in NASCAR.

One Nationwide star already knows that he will be racing in the Cup series in the near future — defending champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will replace Matt Kenseth in Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 17 Cup car next year.

But who are the other young drivers to watch in the Nationwide and truck series? Which ones have the best shot of making it to NASCAR’s top series one day?

We’ve picked five in each series who could make it soon, along with a driver in an underfunded car or running a partial schedule that we’d like to see more of. We also highlight a group of drivers who currently run in NASCAR’s K&N Pro Series (East or West) that fans might want to keep an eye on.

The list doesn’t include veteran drivers who have spent more than three full seasons in the series they compete in. Those drivers already are well known to fans — and Cup team owners.

Here’s a look at some young, up-and-coming drivers to watch this weekend and beyond.

Nationwide

1. Austin Dillon (age 22) — Dillon won the Camping World Truck Series title last year and already has a Nationwide win this year for Richard Childress Racing. Driving a black No. 3 like the car Dale Earnhardt made famous, Dillon is second in the Nationwide standings and will run another full season in Nationwide next season. And it’s a pretty good bet he’ll be racing on Sunday in 2014 for his grandfather’s team.

2. Ryan Blaney (18) — The son of Sprint Cup veteran Dave Blaney isn’t racing this weekend, but he’s got three races left this year for Tommy Baldwin Racing and three more for Penske Racing. Penske just hired him as a developmental driver, and he’ll get his chance to show that his seventh-place run at Richmond in his series debut wasn’t a fluke.

3. James Buescher (22) — Buescher is running the bulk of the Nationwide races in addition to a full-time truck series schedule. He has wins in both series this year, winning the Nationwide race at Daytona and truck races at Kansas and Kentucky.

4. Cole Whitt (21) — Seventh in the Nationwide standings, Whitt has been a little disappointing in his rookie year at JR Motorsports. He needs to show more consistency, but after a solid season in an underfunded truck last year, he’s still got plenty of potential.

5. Ryan Truex (19) — With four top-11 finishes in six starts this year, the younger brother of Sprint Cup driver Martin Truex Jr. has shown he still has potential. He needs more runs like his second-place finish at Dover. A two-time East champ, he needs more runs, period, as he is without a full-time ride.

Worth a second look: Johanna Long (20) — She’s running the majority of the Nationwide races this year for underfunded ML Motorsports, and has been running at the finish in all but one of them. She’s taken care of her equipment and, in the last three races, finished on the lead lap and had three of her best finishes of the year. Steady improvement got her on this list.

Camping World Truck Series

1. Ty Dillon (19) — Third in the truck standings as a rookie, Dillon is considered a faster-off-the-hauler driver than his older brother and just needs more races to improve his race management skills. If he does that, he could be downright scary. He already has finished in the top 10 in each of his nine truck races this year.

2. Nelson Piquet Jr. (26) — The winner of the Nationwide race last month at Road America, Piquet might be ninth in the truck standings but has shown flashes of strength. In the three races where he hasn’t wrecked, the former Formula One driver has finished in the top nine.

3. Justin Lofton (25) — Second in the series standings, Lofton has eight top-10s in nine races, including his first career win at Charlotte. He has found a home at Eddie Sharp Racing, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the organization tries to keep running him up the NASCAR ladder.

4. Parker Kligerman (21) — Penske Racing’s hiring of Ryan Blaney had to sting as Kligerman had been the top development driver for Penske. But Kligerman still has a chance to progress. Driving for Brad Keselowski in the truck series, he has finished every race — a big deal for him — and has finished in the top 11 in eight of the nine races. He’s fifth in points.

5. Joey Coulter (22) — Driving for Richard Childress Racing, Coulter isn’t running as strong as Ty Dillon but he’s been quite respectable. He’s eighth in the standings and has five top-10 finishes, including a third at Texas.

Worth a second look — Ross Chastain (19). In SS Green Light Racing equipment, Chastain is 19th in the standings. But on second look, he’s had three engine failures. In four of the five races he’s been running at the finish, he has runs of seventh, 15th, 16th and 16th.

K&N East/West

1. Kyle Larson (19) — An Earnhardt Ganassi Racing development driver and part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, the Japanese-American Larson finished 10th in his truck series debut at Kentucky. As a rookie, he is second in the East standings with one win and seven top-10 finishes in eight races.

2. Chase Elliott (16) — The son of former NASCAR star Bill Elliott, Chase is third in the East standings with one win and six top-10s. He’s got great equipment from Hendrick Motorsports and veteran Lance McGrew as his crew chief, not to mention the mentoring of the 1988 Cup champion.

3. Corey LaJoie (20) — The son of former Nationwide Series champion Randy LaJoie, Corey is fourth in the East standings with two victories. The kicker here is that LaJoie is running his own stuff that he works on daily. He’s considered the driver doing the most with the least money.

4. Darrell Wallace Jr. (18) — A disappointing 10th in the standings this year, Wallace does have a win. The Joe Gibbs Racing prospect and Drive for Diversity driver would have been atop this list at the start of the season and needs to show that he can bounce back from an awful start. The highlight came in his Nationwide Series debut at Iowa, where he finished ninth.

5. Dylan Kwasniewski (17) — The leader of the West standings, Kwasniewski has two wins and eight top-fives in nine starts. He’s very fast and very young.

Worth a second look — Brandon Gdovic (20). An “old” rookie in the series at 20, he has shown signs of promise with his family-owned team.